Feeling Overwhelmed? It’s Time to Think About Hiring a VA

Being a blogger, business owner, and all-around busy babe, you’ve probably started to feel like things are slipping through the cracks. You’re working hard, pushing yourself to your limits, spending 12+ hours a day in the office, but still you feel like you’re missing out on things. Important things.

Or maybe you feel like you aren’t getting as much done in a day as you’d like. You think, “If I could devote more time to XYZ, I’d have more clients.” Or, “If I could stop worrying about Task A, and focus more on Task B, my business would be booming”

Sound familiar?

If so, it’s time to think about hiring a VA.

What’s a VA?

“VA” stands for Virtual Assistant. A VA is someone who works for you remotely, and carries out a set list of tasks that you assign them. A great VA will get everything done with plenty of time to spare, and will be constantly helping you build, grow, and perfect your business.

The beauty of hiring a VA is that you can delegate and outsource the more menial tasks in your business, and focus wholeheartedly on the “Big Picture” items that are most important for your success and growth. For example, you can outsource Task A so you can focus on B, which is your big ticket item.

If you’ve come to the conclusion that you’re going to be hiring a VA, the next question is: what should you delegate first?

One word, friends: Pinterest.

Now, I have to admit that I’m a bit biased towards Pinterest. It’s easily my favorite social media platform, and it’s also one of the main ways I make a living. I could honestly spend hours pinning away every single day if I didn’t cut myself off.

But besides the fact that it’s just downright fun to use, Pinterest is also the quickest and easiest way to get your content seen, recognized, and shared online. On social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, your content is only “live” for a few hours before it gets buried in the archives. But when it comes to Pinterest, your content can be seen and shared day after day for years to come.

And as if we needed a reason to love Pinterest even more, those wonderful head-office-folks have gone and brought back affiliate links on Pinterest. With affiliate pins on the playing field again, you’ve got a brand new avenue for earning easy, passive income. And who doesn’t love passive income?

Whether you run a blog, website, or e-commerce shop, it’s definitely worthwhile to invest time, energy, and money into Pinterest. And because it’s one of those tasks that doesn’t require your personal touch, it’s the perfect thing to delegate to your new VA!

Things a Pinterest VA Can Manage For You

Below is a list of some of the many, many Pinterest-related tasks a VA can handle for you. Keep in mind that not every VA will be comfortable with all of the tasks on this list, so be sure to clarify which ones you would like them to carry out for you before coming to a formal agreement.

Finding your ideal audience members and building relationships with them

Putting strategies into place to increase Pinterest sharing from your website

Unless you have the time and knowledge to carry out all of these things yourself, you’re going to be missing out on a massive marketing opportunity. There are over 100 million active users on Pinterest every month. A hundred million per month!

Tell me: is that something you’re comfortable missing out on?

Why You Need More Than Tailwind

Some people think that a Pinterest scheduler like Tailwind or BoardBooster is all you really need to be successful on Pinterest. And while it’s a great place to start, it’s definitely not enough on its own.

To promote your business on Pinterest, you need to be actively pinning, interacting, and engaging with people. If you want more followers, re-pins, and traffic back to your site, you need to put a strategy in place to continuously grow your Pinterest account and expand your audience day after day, week after week, and month and month. These are things that most business owners don’t have time for, which is why hiring a VA can be their saving grace.

Hiring a VA: How to Find the Right One

Here comes the tricky bit: how do you go about finding the right person for the job?

You want to make sure that your Pinterest VA is someone that:

Has experience working with Pinterest

Has been shown to get results for other people in your niche/market

You get along with, and that’s always willing to listen to your ideas, goals, and plans for your website and business

Will be available to you on a regular basis (e.g., I don’t recommend hiring someone in a time zone 12 hours ahead of yours)

In my opinion, the best way to track down a VA is organically. If you have business friends in your niche, ask them what VAs they work with or have worked with in the past. Ask your peers and followers on social media for recommendations. Facebook groups like Melyssa Griffin’s “Blog + Biz BFFs” are a great resource for finding VAs in pretty much every category you can imagine (and they’re where I find the majority of my clients).

How to Decide on Rates

Once you’ve found someone who you want to work with, the next step is to decide how many hours they’ll be working for you each month, and how much you’ll be paying them.

Some VAs will have packages of monthly hours for you to choose from, and some will create a custom package that meets your needs. I haven’t met one VA whose packages are completely set in stone, so don’t be scared if somebody’s hours/prices seem a bit beyond your means.

For the first month after hiring a VA, I recommend having him or her on somewhat of an “as needed” basis, starting with the lowest amount of hours you think you could possibly need them per month — say, one hour per week. From there, you’ll get an idea of how much your VA is able to get done in that amount of time, and then you can adjust the hours as needed for the next month.

Get Everything on Paper

One last piece of advice: before hiring a VA, make sure you get everything down on paper and signed by both parties. It doesn’t have to be the most elaborate contact ever, just something that outlines what tasks you expect your VA to complete, what their hourly or monthly rate will be, when they’ll get paid, and how either party can cancel the agreement if needed (e.g., with 5 days written notice).

Once that’s all said and done, it’s time to sit back, relax, and let your VA work their magic!